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Saturday, 4 June 2016

WE GOTTA MOVE THESE REFRIGERATORS

Last month, the Co-Op, as no-one ever called it “The
Co-Operative,” began returning to its original 1968-93 “cloverleaf” logo, and I
approve of this very much.

The reason for the new-old look is to recapture the image of
a strong, ethically-minded group of services owned by its customers, moving on
from the issues that plagued its bank, and providing focus at a time when Co-Op
innovations, such as the traffic light food labelling system, and the selling
of Fairtrade products, are now expected from all retailers. When the John Lewis
Partnership is doing as well as ever, selling the benefits of your business to
your customer, and hope in an ideal form of business, is more important than
ever.

The Co-Op logo is a stout stamp of confidence that, in these
times, fits within the space of an app icon on a phone, looks unlike anything
else out there and, most usefully, can be spotted from a mile away. It is
inextricably linked with what the business stands for that nothing else can
possibly work. The design agency North, responsible for the revamp, were
sensible in using an identity that they already knew works. Here’s hoping it
works for them.

This has all caused me to be nostalgic for the Co-Op fridge
freezer we used to have at home, with the bold logo fixed to a corner. It
lasted for at least twenty years, meaning I also get to be nostalgic for the
times when everything had to be made to last. With the increasing rate of technological
advancement, nothing can ever be around long enough to break down completely – it
rendered my last desktop computer as useless after six years, and my current
one may be thwarted earlier than that.

However, what has struck me the most is that the original
shade of blue is being used around the logo. It is the sort of blue you see on
an old poster fixed to a shop window, long enough for the yellow ink to have
faded, followed by magenta, leaving a cyan that cannot be erased. If the design
can be interpreted as retro, as it is too symbolic and functional in nature to
be kitsch or camp, the colour makes it timeless.

I am wary of nostalgia as a matter of course, preferring to
use the lessons of the past in preference to wallowing in it. Why use remembrance
of the good times to paper over cracks in the present, when it can be used to
talk about the future? It’s a good way of making you think about where to buy
teabags.